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Faramount Station
Faramount Station is a RW-class human rotating wheel space station closely orbiting the rogue, dwarf planet of Faramount. The station is located approximately 1.6 light years from the Sol System, and approximately 1.3 light years from the nearest Interstellar Route 3 way station. A Human Union colony, Faramount is directly administered from Earth. The station relies primarily upon centripetal force for artificial gravity, a nuclear fusion reactor for energy, and bioregenative life support systems. Faramount has a population of 41,953. The inhabitants of the station are formally known as Faramanians, but commonly refer to themselves as Farers. Most of the population is human, but there is a substantial migrant kalen minority. English is the dominant language on the station. Christianity is the leading religion, though nearly a third of the population is irreligious. The station economy is largely focused on three industries: mining (and related refining and manufacturing), shipping, and tourism. The vast majority of residents are unskilled laborers, working either in mining or the service sector. Unemployment is low, but most of the population relies upon low-paying labor for income. Income inequality is a major issue on the station. SPX Corp. envisioned Faramount Station as part of a new spur of IS3, which would allow ships to bypass the Sol System when en route from Kala to Alpha Centauri, shaving about eight months from the journey. Yet explorers ultimately failed to find viable a location for a second way station, leading the H.U. to takeover the project, and re-task the station for mining. Serendipitously, the dwarf planet and its environs proved mineral rich, prompting a mining boom that attracted significant immigration of both humans and kalens. Overcrowding, widespread poverty, and dangerous working dangerous soon exemplified the station, and in 2117, the H.U. imposed a series of docking fees in a bid to raise revenue to fund law enforcement, welfare, and healthcare programs. Community leaders condemned the fees as job-killing taxes, and public discontent ultimately led to a successful, mostly bloodless uprising in 2118. History A SPX Corp. pathfinding vessel discovered Faramount in 2054. Astronomers had predicted that a dwarf planet would exist somewhere in the area of Faramount, based off analysis of the minor blockage of starlight. SPX immediately saw the viability of the planet as the onramp to a new spur of IS3, and undertook a major effort to find a second planet to anchor a second waypoint station. Amidst the economic boom of the late 2050s, SPX contracted TTO to construct the station, despite not having found a waypoint. Yet by 2062, it became clear that a second useful waypoint did not exist, and SPX cancelled the project amidst the recession that year. The Parliament of Earth authorized the purchase, completion, and re-tasking of the station as part of the 2063 Economic Growth and Job Creation Act. Yet the Earth Parliament substantially underfunded the project, leading TTO to experiment with numerous cost-saving measures. The corporation significantly cutback the station's life support capabilities, based upon a correct estimate that the actual population would fall far short of the 75,000 expected to be regularly onboard a way station. What's more, TTO built elevators into only two of the six spokes, figuring that the lesser population would require less elevator usage. Perhaps most notably, at the urging of Earth Parliament, the TTO abandoned the standard horizontal breakup of the wheel. Instead, the TTO divided the station into sections below the Promenade, then auctioned off long-term leasing of the various sections to different companies for development. The station is divided vertically as a result, not horizontally; it is the only station with such a design. TTO completed the station in 2066, though internal construction in several sections continued into the 2090s. The construction corporation touted the station as a major development, noting its numerous new features. Yet privately, many TTO executives considered the new design features an abysmal failure, and sparingly few would be replicated in the future. Media reports largely focused on the already emerging problems with interconnection between vertical sections, overwork of the few passenger elevators, and lack of coherent strategy for completing development of large areas of the station. SPX recognized these faults as well, and backed out of a plan to purchase the station. The Earth Parliament thus took over direct management, making Faramount Station the only station to be directly managed from London. The station prospered despite these limitations, thanks largely to a series of mineral discoveries on Faramount and nearby asteroids. The station's population skyrocketed from just 10,000 in 2066 to over 35,000 in the 2110 census, and the number of inhabitants has only risen subsequently. Two different mining corporations build satellite stations in the 2070s, so as to facilitate mining of nearby asteroids. HMC followed-up in 2082 by constructing a space elevator connecting Faramount Station to Faramount's surface, so as to facilitate surface mining. Each corporation furthermore added freight elevators to the two previously unused spokes, so as to facilitate industrial operations in the wheel. Despite the substantial profits earned through mining on Faramount Station, the installation remains of little strategic significance, as the minerals located in and around Faramount are largely only of commercial use. SPX surprisingly returned to Faramount Station in 2094, making use of the installation for its intended way station purpose. The corporation had developed a new class of long-haul freighters in the prior year, making it possible to ship goods from Faramount Station to Alpha Centauri without a stopover. Several Kalen companies soon followed suit, basing several classes of low-end long-haul liners on the SPX design, and using those ships to transport Kalen immigrants en masse to Alpha Centauri. By 2110, 2-3 ships were coming through the station every day, bringing over 100,000 passengers per year. Though paling by comparison to the traffic normally seen by a way station, this did allow substantial economic diversification on Faramount Station. Faramount Station struggled with numerous endemic social, economic, and political issues despite its success as a mining and way point platform. Economic inequality, social inequality, and corruption proved to be continuous issues, despite the best efforts of the Earth Parliament. London sought in the 2070s and 2080s to contract with various companies to manage the station, but found itself inevitably nixing those agreements due to widespread discontent with corporate governance. The Parliament granted the station autonomy in 2084, allowing a local elected council to takeover affairs. Yet this council ultimately drove the station into bankruptcy, forcing a suspension of its powers for 6 years from 2097-2103. Eight years later, Earth disbanded the council after more than half of its members were arrested in a corruption investigation. The Earth Parliament appointed a governor to manage the station in 2111, granting that official absolute power over station affairs. Seven governors served in the next four years, implementing a series of policies that balanced the station's budget but inevitably led to widespread protest. Station inhabitants took particular issue with the fact that each governor had only visited the station for the first time after being appointed. Responding to this criticism, H.U. Prime Minister Christopher Bretagne in 2015 appointed as governor James Terrus, a rising political star that had been born and raised on Faramount Station. Terrus kept a low profile for the next two years, making a name for himself as a technocrat focused simply on improving station governance. Yet Terrus sparked outrage in 2117 when he imposed a series of new docking fees in order to fund a major proposed investment in healthcare, education, welfare, and law enforcement. Mining and transit leaders argued that the plan would drive away business, costing jobs. They launched a campaign against the measures, and against Earth governance generally, arguing that London had in effect created a dictatorship on the station. A series of increasingly violent protests, and resulting increasingly violent crackdowns, led a broad array of local political leaders to come together in January 2018 to plan an uprising. On 26 February 2018, these community organizers executed this plan, successfully taking over the station in a matter of hours. Description Faramount Station is a unique RW-class waypoint station that incorporates elements of both the mining and waystation variants of the RW-class. Like all RW-class stations, Faramount Station is a rotating wheel space station, principally comprised of three parts: a cylindrical hub (connected to a docking/berthing pylon), six cylindrical spokes, and a rectangular wheel. The station Faramount Station hub is also connected to a space elevator. The station as a whole has been set to permanently spin in order to create centripetal force based artificial gravity in the wheel, allowing permanent habitation. The 350-meter long, 60-meter diameter cylindrical hub hosts the station's major industrial facilities, fusion reactor, and connections to the station's docking pylon and space elevator. There are fifteen levels on the hub, containing 315,000 square meters of floor space. The station's docking pylon features forty-eight berths for cargo exchanges and six ports for passenger exchanges. The station's space elevator connects to HMC's vast mining complexes on Faramount's surface. The hub has minimal artificial gravity, as the station's slow spin is barely noticeable close to the center. The six 840-meter long, 20-meter diameter cylindrical spokes connect the hub to the wheel, hosting a number of power cables, water tubes, and other infrastructure links. Each spoke is designed to support four elevators capable of traversing the spoke in approximately one minute, allowing tens of thousands of individuals to transit the spoke each day. Yet only two of the spokes actually have passenger elevators, due to budget cuts during construction. Two other spokes feature freight elevators, and a third spoke features two elevators whose use is limited to station personnel. There are also four ladders in each spoke, though these are designed only for emergency use. Gravity varies through the spokes. The 5.5 kilometer long, 80-meter tall, 60-meter wide wheel contains the station's residential, commercial, and light industrial districts. There are 20 levels in the ring, providing just over 5 square kilometers of floor space. The station's bioregenerative life support systems, hydrogen fuel cell backup power system, and command center are all located on the wheel. The wheel is broadly divided into six vertical sectors, and a number of component vertical sections. These sections have come to take on specific sociocultural identities, similar to urban neighborhoods. Demographics The Union Census Bureau estimated the Faramount Station population to be 41,953 as of July 1, 2117, making the station the smallest entity directly administered by the Human Union. The station population has grown steadily since its construction, rising from just 10,000 in 2066 to over 35,000 in the 2110 census. Humans, mostly white people and hispanics, constitute 65.3% of inhabitants. Kalens comprised most of the remaining portion of the population, 34.6%. Most of the remaining individuals were of mixed human-kalen blood. Faramount's population is projected to grow consistently for the next few decades, largely thanks to kalen reproduction and immigration. The total birth rate on the station is 16.82 per 1,000 inhabitants, yielding a total fertility rate of 2.34 children per female, just above the 2.2 replacement rate. Yet the kalen birth and fertility rates are much higher, offsetting significantly lower human birth and fertility rates. What's more, the station's net migration rate of 3.34 migrants per 1,000 population mostly reflects kalen immigration. While humans constitute about 80% of the native-born population, kalens are a majority of new babies, and are expected to constitute a majority of the station's population by 2150. English is the dominant language on Faramount Station, spoken nearly universally by the station's population. Yet most Faramanians are bilingual. Most kalens speak the Kalen language at home, despite also being fluent in English. Most humans speak at least one other human language, usually Spanish. All official business is conducted in English, and all signs and warnings are printed and broadcast in English. H.U. regulations require that the government make all forms and documents available in any requested language, however, and mandate the provision of translators when requested for court and other formal proceedings. Christianity is the leading religion on the station, practiced by approximately 53.2% of its inhabitants including a majority of humans and nearly a third of kalens. Yet a substantial minority of Faramanians, 38.6%, are irreligious. The human irreligious population tends to be higher-educated, wealthier, and younger, and tends to describe itself more as atheist, agnosticism, or uninterested. The kalen irreligious population tends to adhere to a broader spiritualism. Religious Faramanians tend to be particularly devout; 58% of Christians said the church played a "very important role in their lives" in a 2015 survey, and 44% attended church weekly according to the same survey. Religious Faramanians are more likely to get married, have children, and have multiple children. The remaining 8.2% of the population practices a variety of religions. Government and politics Economy Culture